Ilchi Lee - Personal History

Personal History

Ilchi Lee was born in 1950 in Cheonan (천안 天安), South Korea. His father was a teacher, yet he reports having struggled in school due to his inability to focus and a preference for imaginative play. Later in life, he would identify himself as having overcome Attention Deficit Disorder through rigorous physical and mental training. He suggests in his books that these early experiences formed the foundation of the brain-based training techniques he would develop later in life.

In his adolescence he turned to the martial art Taekwondo (태권도 跆拳道) to help calm his restless mind. He eventually earned a fourth-level black belt, and opened a successful martial arts studio. He took the first term of Taekwondo master education hosted by Kukkiwon in 1972. After he graduated from Dankook University (단국대학교 檀國大學校) in 1977 with a B.S. degree in clinical pathology and physical education, he opened a health clinic, which according to his own account did well. He soon married and settled down to raise a family.

However, Lee recounts that he was still plagued by nagging questions about the meaning of human life and the universe, even while on the surface living an ideal life. Thus, in his early thirties he set out to engage in rigorous solo training in the wilderness of Korea's Moak Mountain (모악산 母岳山) to engage in 21 days of ascetic practice and meditation without food, water, sleep or lying down. He writes that through this training he gained enlightenment and deep insights that would provide the philosophical underpinnings of his methods.

Upon his return to ordinary civilization, he began to teach his methods in a community park, at first to only one stroke victim. It was at this point that he took the name Ilchi (일지 一指), which means "finger pointing to the truth." Eventually, a larger group of people gathered in the park, and inclement weather necessitated that the classes be moved indoors. This led to the opening of the first Dahn Center in 1985 in Seoul (서울), South Korea, which would grow to over 300 Korean centers in the early twenty-first century In 1991, the first Dahn Center opened in the United States. As of 2006, there were approximately 146 Dahn Centers in the United States. In the meantime, many corporates and government organizations, including Samsung Group, Hyundai, POSCO, and Ministry of National Defense of South Korea employed Lee's program for their employees. Chung Ju-yung, the former Hyundai CEO, Chey Jong-hyun, the former CEO of SK Corporation and Cho Soon the former Vice Prime Minister of South Korea took personal training from Lee. Lee has been given a letter of appreciation from Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and Ministry of National Defense of South Korea. Korean religions scholar Dr. Hai Ran Woo describes Ilchi Lee's Dahn World Co. (formerly Dahn-Hak-Sonwon) as South Korea's largest 'New Age' (or 'self-cultivation') 'meditation industry' with sales reaching $280 million in 2005. Dahn World has described their spiritual products as the most lucrative of all Korean exports; they plan to expand to 36,000 training centers worldwide by 2010.

Korean religions scholar Donald Baker regards Dahn World as one of the more noteworthy among more than 200 new religions in S. Korea that share a 'Korea-centric' view that Korea has become 'the spiritual center of the world' – with Dahn World asserting that Seung Heun Lee is a world renowned spiritual leader leading humanity toward an 'enlightenment revolution'.

In 2000, Ilchi Lee became a director of the Tao Fellowship, a non-profit religious charity and educational foundation, which purchased majestic property in Sedona, Arizona to house the Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center (SIMC). According to their Web site, the Tao Fellowship teaches and promotes Tao philosophy and provides training for a cultural movement for peace. The Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center is described as "the home from which the ideals of Tao Fellowship may flower and go forth to awaken the human consciousness," and as the location of 12 energy vortexes (Sedona is believed by many visitors and locals to contain healing energy vortexes.) Described by Dr. Woo as the "heart of the 'world mission' or 'global management,'" SIMC hosts 3,000 participants annually from around the world in a variety of programs based in Lee's Brain Education system, including youth camps, residential healing, retreat programs and advanced Dahn training programs such as Dahn Healer School. Recently SIMC was renamed the Sedona Mago Retreat Center (SMRC) and celebrated its 10th Anniversary in May 2008."Mago" means "Mother Earth" in Korean.

According to his official website, Lee is no longer in direct management of the Dahn Centers, instead focusing on developing educational applications of his training system and serving as president of the consulting firm BR Consulting in Sedona, AZ, which provides services to corporations that provide his training programs, including management of trainer education programs, training and licensing of trainers, marketing and media relations, business analysis and planning.

On January 8, 2009, Lee held a seminar at the United Nations on "The Role of Brain Education in Global Mental Health," as the president of IBREA. Coincided with the seminar, New York City declared this day "IBREA Brain Education Day," recognizing Brain Education's contribution to education, health and well-being of New York citizens.

Fifteen American cities including Atlanta, Cambridge, Las Vegas and San Francisco have declared Ilchi Lee Day, in recognition of Lee's contributions through his original Brain Education